Articles
Investment, Brexit and the challenge of IP for the UK space industry
6 December 2018
The UK government is investing heavily into space technology as part of its economic strategy. For example, this year alone, two separate grants from the UK Space Agency – worth a combined £23.5m – have been awarded to Lockheed Martin, a global security and aerospace company, to develop a new spaceport in...
How the Landscape for UK Design Rights is Changing as we Approach Brexit
19 November 2018
Key Points: UK registered design filings almost double from 2016 to 2017 as applicants prepare for Brexit. Existing European registered design rights will likely be automatically converted to UK registered design rights after Brexit, but the UK government expects administrative steps to be required from the rights holder to secure...
A Right Pain in the Peripheries? The Supreme Court Decision in Warner-Lambert v Generics & Actavis
15 November 2018
Summary In a significant judgment, the UK Supreme Court has rejected Warner-Lambert’s appeal against the revocation of patent EP(UK) No. 0934061, for the use of pregabalin in the treatment of pain. A key part of the ruling was the upholding of the appeal decision that a higher threshold of plausibility...
Wisdom of the crowd: how to make sure IP doesn’t derail your crowdfunding efforts
5 November 2018
Startups raising hundreds of thousands – even millions – of pounds via Kickstarter may be rarer than it once was, but crowdfunding remains a popular method of fundraising. There are a myriad of options, whether you go down the equity crowdfunding route offered by the likes of Seedrs, CrowdCube, and...
How the tech giants co-opted the world of open source
31 October 2018
On 28 October 2018, it was announced that IBM will buy open source software company, Red Hat, for $34 billion. This is a landmark deal, as the biggest IBM has made in its more-than-a-hundred year history, and the third largest deal ever for a US tech company. It also moves IBM...